Rio’s Rossing Uranium Mine Reports 41% Drop in Out

Rio Tinto Plc’s (RIO) Rossing uranium mine said output declined 41 percent to 2,148 metric tons in 2011 from a year earlier, missing its target, as above-average rainfall at the start of the year cut production.

Low grades, low crushing-plant availability, a planned two- week maintenance shutdown and industrial action during the second half of the year also curbed output, the company said in a statement handed to reporters today in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital. The output target was 3,100 tons for the year, External Affairs Manager Jerome Mutumba said Nov. 28.

Rossing, which posted a loss of 471 million Namibian dollars ($57 million) for the year, expects to return to profitability in 2014, it said.